Burning Dunes of Time
by therealjanedoe
Summary: This story runs parallel to Naruto Shippuden, as it starts when Sasuke forms the group Snake. However I have added my own character into the group, and that changes things. A lot.


The burning plains subdivided the village into four quarters. To the north were the peakless mountains puncture the heavy bellies of the clouds, little shacks of houses were dotted near the base of the wide rock formation. These homes were few and distant from each other; home to the nomads and alienated people of the village, now all alienated from this world entirely. To the west, the hungry fire from the plain tried to cross the meandering river, desperate to decompose the small homes on the other side. These were the homes of the fishermen, who habitually went down to the river on their doorsteps daily to fish and crossed the red bamboo bridge further downstream, to get to the village and sell their catch of the day.

Now the river (normally a sparkling blue with heavy mist hovering above from the speed of its flow away from its source in the mountain) was dark and murky. It was slow and barely flowing. Ash, bodies, debris and waste blocked its usual rapid past. There was cloud of smoke hanging heavy above it, and an increasing quantity of blood flowing within it. Tomorrow all the fish and crabs will be dead. Today all the fishermen were already departed. To the east and south of the burning plain, two large fortresses encircled the two household of the village's most lethal shinobi clans. The fortresses faced away from the village centre, to the main road that connected this village to the rest of the Land of Valleys. They were the small and modest village's primary defence. They had fallen to the fire first, with a single blow of the invader's ninjutsu, leaving a half demolished crescent shaped fortress to watch over the ruins of the Kaguri village.

These were the four new parts of the village centred around the burning plains. Originally however there were five parts to the village, and there never was any plane within the village. But this is what became of the centre. The fifth part. The market square, and the school with the playground and the library. The rows of colourful houses, and apartments. All turned into a sea of ash and blood. The fire kept on burning, as it will do for the next two weeks, until everything became consumed and rendered to soot. The crows had flown away with the rest of the winged animals and the herds that had stampeded out of their encloser, but they would be back when the smoke had cleared and the fire ceased, to pick at the corpses clean.

Not many had been spared. Not many at all. None of the shinobi remained. Their loyalty to their way of the ninja would have led to their suicide, so the invaders didn't' try to capture them. Only a handful of children- potential warriors, and strong looking men were kept. These ones grieved, they grieved not for their lost neighbours, their friends, sons, and daughters, but for themselves and the hellish fate their capture has sentenced them to. Amongst them was a girl; the only one of four, a small little thing that didn't look older than three. She walked quietly behind the oldest girl; one of twenty, holding on tightly to the woman's top, clutching the soiled fabric between her trembling fingers. The older woman's hands were too busy to be held; they were holding on tightly to a little baby. So the little girl chose to hold on to the top instead. It helped her keep up with the harsh walking pace the invaders had set. The woman had told her not to cry, she must do anything but cry. As the last member of the Jurikon clan, she had to honour her parent's strength and her clan's honour. If she did that, the women had promised her, she'll be greatly rewarded later.

The two invaders that lead the group of twenty ex villagers, were vested in black cloaks, and hoods shadowed their face. Few of the men villagers had seen their face, and remarked that there was a shinobi head band on their forehead. The symbol was obscured by the smoke and grime but they could make out Otogakaru symbol. But this didn't tell them much, because the slit across the sound ninjas' headbands told them they weren't affiliated with that hidden village anymore. That they were missing nin with their own agenda. Most of the men, knew what that was, even those that hadn't seen the headbands. These were Orochimaru's men. Men that had come two months ago and had ordered them to dig at the base of the mountain for a secrete scroll their lord believed was hidden somewhere below the rock face. Two days ago, a worker had apparently found it and had tried to get one of the shinobi teams of the village to deliver it to one of their allied villages in a neighbouring country. Something with in it had terrified them and it was labelled as forbidden.

They hadn't even made it past the village entrance before the attack began.

Now the two invaders that had single handed manage to destroy a population of one thousand, congratulated each other as the scroll was tied securely to one of their backs.

"What are you going to do with us?" A brave man asked that night when they had set camp. All the villagers could tell is that they were heading west. "Kill us?"

"No,no. That would have been easier do back there, back then. You will be kept for Lord Orochimaru's purposes. He has been running low on stock in his Land of River's hideout not far from here. You'll be staying there. "

"What's to become of us?"

"I don't know. Perhaps, nothing, perhaps something. Depends what your body can handle. Lord Orochimaru's is in the experiment business lately. Haven't you heard?"

The men blanched considerably. Of course they had heard. Rumours were spreading fast about this once legendary sanin. The older women nursed the babe she held in her hands and swallowed the tears that were threating to break through. She had been the nurse maid for lady Nikana and Herita. Now she saw that she was only spared for those duties alone. Her poor ladies to be experimented on, the youngest not even one.

One of the invaders glanced from under his hood at the two little girls that were held close by the woman. "Shame they are both girls," he told his partner. "Women as shinobi doesn't unleash the full potential of the kekkei genkai."

"Yes, but if the scroll is correct, even an incompetent fool would be tremendously powerful with this."

"As long as they hold that kekkei genkai."

"Yes," the other man replied as the group of prisoners fell asleep slowly with the setting sun. The babe had ceased its crying, and was now nursing at the breast of the nurse maid. Her little fingers intertwining within her own white blond hair. "With the reverse Shakuton kekkei genkai anything in possible."


End file.
